Do small businesses employ more people than large businesses in America?
By Samuel Henning
Copy link
Copy featured image
NO
Small businesses, which the U.S. Small Business Administration defines as a firm employing fewer than 500 people, employed 47.3% of all private-sector workers in the United States in 2019. As 15% of all workers are employed in the public sector, large businesses employ 45% of all U.S. workers compared with 40% for small businesses.
While large businesses employ more Americans, small businesses contribute significantly to economic growth and job growth. From 1993 to 2011, about 64% of new jobs were created by small businesses.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
